Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is tough enough to run a small business without having to wade through all the paperwork and red tape. As someone who used to work in the superannuation industry and knows this field quite well, I am aware of the headache it causes small businesses when they have to pay contributions into numerous superannuation funds. It is an administrative burden that small businesses do not have the time for, and most of them do the right thing by their workers. That is why the decision by the Rudd government to set up a free superannuation clearing house for those businesses with fewer than 20 employees is a good thing. Having a clearing house available for small businesses is an important measure, because it will allow them to fulfil their obligations in respect of paying superannuation contributions through just a single payment each time instead of multiple transactions.

As a nation, we need to do more to help small businesses flourish in Australia, because they are the lifeblood of our economy and the largest employer of Australian workers. The Rudd government should be commended for helping to ease the administrative burden faced by small businesses. Back in 2007, the Labor Party promised the Australian people that if elected it would set up a free clearing house for small businesses by 30 June 2009, not 30 June 2010. Guess what? Yep, the Rudd government broke that election promise. It is almost a year after the deadline and it is only now that we are finally debating this with the Tax Laws Amendment (2010 Measures No. 1) Bill 2010. Unfortunately, this type of behaviour of breaking election promises is something that the Australian public are growing more and more concerned about with the Rudd government.

In fact, I could name a whole list of election promises to the Australian public which the Rudd government has broken. But now the Rudd government has another broken election promise to add to that list, because instead of providing for the clearing house to be run by a private provider, as the Labor Party promised, it is now going to have this run by Medicare. This is a broken election promise that I know has caused a lot of angst amongst private sector clearing houses who feel that they should have been given the opportunity to tender for the business. Instead, the government has turned to Medicare, who it also turned to to run the pink batts program—that is right, the pink batts program which the Rudd government totally mismanaged.

We all know what happened to the pink batts program. We can only hope that the Rudd government does not stuff up this superannuation clearing house program. Family First is disappointed that the government has broken its election promise and let the Australian people down yet again. The Australian people are being treated like rag dolls by the Rudd government, which throws them from pillar to post without apparently really caring what they think or even caring about what it promised. When is an election promise a real promise? The Australian public is getting sick and tired of having the Rudd government constantly go back on its word. So what does this mean for this superannuation clearing house legislation? The establishment of a free clearing house for small businesses is a welcome initiative which will help small business. Family First supports this superannuation clearing house concept and will consider the amendments as the debate unfolds.